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Amaravati Priti was incredibly proud of herself. Sure, she was still walking with a limp, but there was something else much more important than that. The furniture company had called her to tell her that her order had been sent and received, and she couldn't have been happier. Walking (well, limping a little) through the front door, Amara took the opportunity to admire her handiwork. Of course, she only paused for a moment, because there was such a fuss and to-do going on.

The shelves were as beautiful as she had pictured them, of course, and she was fairly sure that the set of chairs and tables would be arriving any day now. Pleased as punch, she looked around for a familiar face, a box carefully balanced in her arms. It took her awhile to track him down, but when she finally did, she headed in his direction. "Tony! I've brought my book back-- thank you, by the way, it was a real help-- and a bit more. Could you tell me where I'm meant to bring new books for the library?"

Oh, she was definitely feeling a little smug, but who could blame her? The shelves looked gorgeous, and Anthony looked enchanted, and she wasn't sure which she liked better. A little smile tugged at her lips, and for the moment she was glad that she was on painkillers. It made it much easier to walk without the bloody crutch she'd had to make do with earlier on in the week.

She moved with a certain brittleness, as if she would break if she pushed herself too hard, but some of it (a good share of it) was just Amara being cautious. She certainly didn't want to do herself more damage. It was a gait made more awkward by the fact that she was wearing flats for the first time since she'd been twelve, and she didn't really know how to handle herself in them. She felt shorter, and ... awkward. Still awkward. More awkward than before.

And, happy as you please, Amaravati followed Anthony around the library. Why not, when he was being his usual gallant self, after all? "Why thank you," she said with a laugh, his enthusiasm catching. A smile tugged at her lips, and she very readily followed his lead. She was enjoying seeing him so happy; there was something about the man when he was noticeably giddy, wasn't there? Maybe it was something about all men in general in that state. Attractive ones, anyway. He qualified, he definitely qualified.

Making her favorite Librarian happy was going to become a beloved pastime, she decided. "Sure, let's put them on the Third floor," she said blithely, forgetting for the moment that the extremely jealous staff member happened to reside on the Second floor. Wherever he wanted to put the books would be fine. "There are some old fairytales in there, along with a selection on various mythologies," she mentioned, unaware that by stating such she was inadvertently giving him a hint as to the identity of his mysterious benefactor.

Of course, he was very unlikely to pick up on that. "I particularly liked the astronomy book with all of the latest Hubble images. You do have a place for them all, don't you?" Tony really was a nice guy. So nice, in fact, that she'd decided to do nice things for him just to sort of... pay him back for everyone. Not that any one person could make up for all the ills in the world, but she could certainly try! She'd never given a gift without the expectation that the gifted person wouldn't know it was her before, and she found she rather liked it.

"Erm. Yes, I am shorter now. It is the high heels, and I'm having a little trouble walking without them, you see." Not to mention that having a sprained ankle made it difficult to walk as is. "No, no. I didn't come just to drop them off." Lowering her gaze for a moment, she bolstered up her (usually formidable) courage, and then flashed him a smile. "I came to see you, actually. To visit. You had promised me a chance to look at your collection, after all?"

She dug into her purse just as they entered the elevator, holding up the book she had checked out before like some kind of flag. "Oh, and also to turn this back in. I'm sure there's somewhere I'm supposed to take it, but this really is only the second time I've been to this Library." And she wondered briefly whether her second time would be as troublesome as her first. First times were always bad, but she didn't think they could get much worse than she'd experienced. She wrinkled her nose at the thought of it, and put it out of her mind. Surely she had just been imagining things!

"No. $#@*ing. Way." The words burst out of Amaravati before she realized who she was talking to, and then she blushed at her choice of phrasing. "... I cannot believe that the elevator went out now. It was working just the other day. What happened?" And they were in the dark. Okay, obviously there was a power outage of some sort. Oh dear. "Oh. Yes, you're right, that must be it." The power went out, and she was in the elevator. She was in the elevator... in the dark. Alo-- okay, not alone. She was alone in the dark with Anthony. Now, that wasn't hardly the sort of thing to make a girl think good thoughts.

Appropriate thoughts. Thoughts that did not involve how best to entertain oneself when there was no way they were going anywhere for awhile. Right. Books. "Y-Yes, we could just read, I guess, if it takes some time. But how?" It was dark, after all. Dark enough that she couldn't see a blessed thing, let alone the smile that Tony was offering her. Sweet of him, if only she could see it. "It's as though your Library hates me, I swear," she said jokingly, though her tone fell a little flat. It really was as though the Library hated her, or something.

Her self control had been bad enough the other day, and she hadn't been trapped in a $*@$ing elevator with the man! It was enough to try the patience of a saint, really, and Amaravati was no saint. But there were distractions, at least. "As soon as we're out of here, we'll have to look over your collection, and you can tell me all about it." Men liked to talk about themselves and their things, didn't they? That was definitely the key. Let him talk, and listen, and they could just... bore themselves to death. Right, next plan.

"Hey, don't worry. The power might be out, but someone'll fix it soon, won't they?" Why did he sound less cheerful? Well, okay, she knew why, but she felt sort of bad anyway. "It could be worse, Tony. We could be stuck in the elevator alone, without anyone to talk to." Without anyone to bite her tongue around. Focus. Making friends was awfully hard! ... And she didn't much care for the dark when she was powered down. She wasn't afraid of it, exactly, but there was so much less to do! "... Out of curiosity, are you seeing that woman from the Periodicals section?" she asked innocently, as though it were the most normal thing ever to discuss.

Well, she had to entertain herself somehow, didn't she?

Amara stared blankly at Tony for a moment before she let out a rather strangled laugh. "Oh you! You would have a flash light. What, were you a boyscout when you were a kid?" Shaking her head, she settled in beside him, deciding that he had the right idea for now. No sense in straining that ankle of hers. "So, yes, we could read a book, if it came down to it. Or we could try reading a book aloud? It might be hard to juggle the flashlight, otherwise."

What would he think of that? She was running short of ideas that didn't involve misbehaving. The poor man would probably die of shock if she did. Amara wasn't sure that Tony was up to handling the handful that she knew she could be. Nor did she know if the thought of it would ever even cross his mind. As dear as he was, he would probably be nice to her forever. Politely, distantly nice. Men. "I absolutely agree. The library has to hate one of us. Although... what was it that you were doing when I saw you earlier?" Glancing at him curiously, she pretended that she hadn't had a clue about it.

"Well... it's because of how she acted the other day. I didn't put it together immediately, but when I thought about it, I realized that she must have been jealous. So, I wondered." It wouldn't do to put the moves on someone else's man, after all. ... She was not seriously thinking that, was she? Argh. Amaravati obviously needed to get out more, if her mind was wandering like that. Silly of her. "I can't imagine that she'd ever be so unpleasant to a patron otherwise... would she?" Was she that petty? Somehow, it was hard to imagine that Tony had dated a woman like that.

The internal 'yes' when he said that he wasn't, and the pleased little grin she kept all to herself, though. The idea of someone like him seeing someone like Carol was, well, unpleasant to say the least. "She was a bit frosty, if you take my meaning." And Amara hadn't really earned frosty from her, aside from the way Tony had been helping her out at every turn. Carol was foolish if she thought that that was anything special to do with her. Tony was just that kind. He simply was, and it rather boggled her mind. Belatedly, she quirked an eyebrow and said: "Librarians have a motto? And it's not to do with books?"

Meanwhile, Amaravati had settled herself right up next to the Librarian, tucked into his side just a little so that she could read the words while he read aloud. She smiled at certain points, and looked faintly wistful at others. At the heart, Amara was a very lonely girl, with a very small collection of friends and not a romance in sight. She could relate to the characters, truly. "Has anyone ever told you that you have a good reading voice?" she offered, when he came to the end of the story. "It's pleasant to listen to you. Especially... well, like this." Here, in the dark, all but cuddled up against him.

Right. She really... needed to not consider such things. "It really makes you wonder, doesn't it? I wonder if there is someone out there for everyone." Even Amara, with her troubled heart, and night job. Maybe there was some romance out there for her after all. It really wasn't fair that he could sit there so calmly in the dark, and read such things. "This is actually... really nice. I haven't had a story read to me since I was a little girl, and I'm long since past that point. Even then, the stories weren't quite the same."

There was still that edge of sadness to her, of melancholy. Every lonely person had moments like this one, or so she thought. "You said earlier that your co-worker isn't intolerable," she said after a moment of contemplation. After all, she didn't have much else to do right now, did she? "Well, I don't think she's that bad, really. I just think that she didn't like me being so, uh, close to you." Not the best segway into a romantic interlude, but it would have to do. She picked up the book, and paged past where he was to the next story.

"My turn, I think," and with that, she pressed the flashlight into his hand, and began to read. This story was one of her old favorites, about a princess locked up in an ivory tower. Amusing, considering their current location. It had approximately the same theme as the last tale, and she edged just a little closer to him as she proceeded to tell it with as much flare and style as she could manage. ... Amaravati liked to use different voices when she was reading different parts.

"Well," said Amara, looking up at Tony (and he was actually quite close now, so the look was somewhat more intimate than before), and trying to tell herself that he was just doing that because. "... I'm not really that young, you know. But it's not about being young. I'm not very good at making friends, Tony. Why should it be any easier to have a romantic relationship? ... And besides, you can't tell me that you find it easy." No offense meant, of course, but it didn't seem at all as though he did.

She offered him a smile, shaking off the faint daze that being quite so close created. It wasn't often at all that she got into this sort of situation with no expectations. "Oh I'll bet it was a long time ago," she said teasingly, swatting him lightly. "But there you go, now it hasn't been long at all-- and are you falling asleep on me? Is my voice that boring?" More to the point, was she that boring? Right. So, starting with the touching had been a bad idea.

Bringing her hand back where it belonged, she took the light back from him. "I think it's your turn... unless you'd rather do something else?" Oh, she hadn't meant to sound so stupidly hopeful. Dumb of her, really. Very, very dumb. There was no way that he didn't think of her as a kid, or something. Well. Maybe there was. ... Carol certainly hadn't thought of her that way. "I could keep reading, if you'd like?"

Keep reading, keep enjoying having Tony all over her. That sounded promising. ... Promising, but a serious test of willpower. They were leaned into each other, sitting so close that she might as well have been in his lap, but it was supposed to be all innocent. She could've groaned for how painfully idiotic she was being. Maybe she could blame it on hormones, or something. Stupid $*@$ing crush. She'd told herself she wouldn't fall into that trap, and there she was, practically fawning over him.

Amaravati stared at Tony for a long moment, trying to decide whether honesty was the best policy here. If she told him that she was eighteen, he might get all fatherly on her, and she did not want that at all. If anything, she wanted him to be a friend, a real friend. An equal. "I'm old enough to know better, and young enough not to care. Does that answer suffice?" It didn't tell him what he wanted to know, but it also wasn't just... flippant. She didn't want to be flippant.

God, why was she even bloody talking about love. "I suppose I get a little caught up in these things. It's not really so important to invest in them, but... well, a girl can dream, can't she?" And Amara did. Amara had big dreams. Big dreams that probably would never see the light of day, given the path that she was currently taking. Ursula and Khalid's marriage had told her one thing, and that was that people, even people like her, could love. But it wasn't quite the same.

And she wasn't quite the same, she knew. Not the same as them, at any rate. Whatever it was about her, a hardening of heart or something else, she just hadn't... hardened enough. Not yet. Brooding while she waited for him to start up again, she mentally considered why it was that so many people failed in this regard. They just could not connect. Could she? Did she want to? More importantly, was it even worth the trouble?

Right here, right now... it might not be. For all she knew, Tony had not ever thought of her that way, and would never think of her that way. And really, she ought not to do it herself. So, steeling herself, she stayed tucked into his side, head all but resting against his shoulder, and just listened to him read. The subject this time was sadder, and it brought out a similar emotion in the young woman, the wistfulness of before back in full force.